Liver Cancer Stages

Conditions & Diseases: Cancers

Stages

An important prognostic predictor for any type of cancer is the clinicopathologic stage. A clinicopathologic stage describes the cancer developmental phase, and is established according to several criteria: (1) the tumor size, (2) the cancer location (if the cancer is present in one or both lobes of the liver), (3) the cancer extent (this last criteria is divided in two: if the cancer grew into or around the blood vessels and if the cancer had spread to the adjacent lymph nodes or organs).

There are four stages of liver cancer:

STAGE I: Localized and Resectable (the tumor can be surgically removed)
In this stage, the tumor, measuring 2 cm or less, is located in a single area of the liver and can be surgically removed.

STAGE II: Localized and Possible resectable
In this stage, the cancer is present in one or more locations but did not spread to the adjacent lymph nodes or blood vessels. There are two situations that can occur:
- A single tumor measuring either around 2 cm or less, or more than 2 cm is present .
- Few tumors measuring 2 cm or less are present, but they are all confined to one liver lobe.

STAGE III: Advanced
This stage is divided in two sub-stages:

Stage III A: In this stage, the cancer has not spread to other organs or lymph nodes. However, there are two situations that can occur:
- A single tumor larger than 2 cm is present and the blood vessels around the tumor are affected.
- Few tumors measuring either around 2 cm or less, or more than 2 cm are present in the same liver lobe, and the adjacent blood vessels might be affected.

Stage III B: In this stage, the tumors can have any size, the blood vessels may or may not be affected, and the cancer has spread to the adjacent lymph nodes without affecting other organs.

STAGE IV: Disseminated (diffused)
This stage is divided in two sub-stages:

- Stage IVA: In this stage, the cancer is present in more than one liver lobes, it may has spread to adjacent lymph nodes, organs (but not the gallbladder) and structures (like peritoneum), and it grew into or around the main blood vessels (portal vein and hepatic artery).

- Stage IVB: In this stage, the cancer has spread to distal (situated farthest from origin point) organs and lymph nodes.

Article by Alina Morrow, MA
Medical Writer
OmniMedicalSearch.com